Why God's Anger Burned Against Balaam on the Road to Curse Israel

"And God's anger was kindled because he was going" (Numbers 22:22) — because he went toward destruction, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire the destruction of the wicked. "In the way as an adversary against him" — to kill him. "And his two servants were with him" — such is the way of the world, that an important person does not set out on the road with fewer than three people. For two reasons: so that one will not go off to another place and he be left alone; and further, that if the two of them quarrel, the third will stand up and make peace between them. Rabbi Meir would do thus: if he saw one man going out on the road, he called him "two: death"; two — "of the manner of strife"; three — "of the manner of peace." This is what is written, "Two are better than one" (Ecclesiastes 4:9), and it says, "And the threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:12). And so too with our father Abraham, it says, "And he took his two young men" (Genesis 22:3).